Glossary of Railway Terms

GLOSSARY OF COMMON RAILWAY TERMS Terminology varies by country, and also often by railroad. The following are general terms as usually understood in Canada. agent – an employee of the railway appointed to be in charge of a station. The agent was responsible for conveying train orders to train crews, and for staffing and operating the station. This included ticket sales, freight way bills, dispatch and receipt of express parcels and LCL (less than a car load of) merchandise, the operation of the station telegraph, maintenance of the station area, provision for the well-being and direction of passengers, and the safety and accuracy of freight shipments. A person of standing in the local community along with the banker, priest, postmaster and head teacher. air brake – a power braking system with compressed air as the operating medium. bad order (track) – a track to hold cars requiring minor repairs, usually in a marshalling yard. baggage – a passenger’s luggage, carried with the passenger or conveyed in the baggage compartment and (where required) stored in the baggage room at the station. ballast – crushed stone or slag put down to form a level bed for the track and to facilitate drainage of the roadbed. bridge – a structure consisting of plate girder or truss spans, intermediately supported, if needed, by piers at longer intervals than those of a trestle. brakeman/trainman – an employee of the railway. These terms are interchangeable. The word brakeman dates from the days before air brakes when the brakes had to be applied by hand to stop the train. When the engineer wanted to stop the train he blew one short blast of the engine whistle. This was the signal for the brakemen to climb on top of the cars and apply the hand brakes. To apply the brakes a long brake club was used. A brake club was the size and shape of a pick handle and this gave the leverage to apply the brake. buffer stop or bumper post – the barrier installed at the end of a dead-end track to prevent rail vehicles from proceeding further. B&B – Building and Bridge (Department). caboose – see conductor’s van. car – any piece of rollingstock (qv) that can form part of a consist. class – see under engines and trains. clearance (clearance form) - In addition to a train order, train crews needed a clearance when leaving their initial station and at any station where they receive a train order. A clearance is a verification that the crew has received all the orders it is supposed to receive. coal chute – a structure next to, or over a railway track, used to place coal into the locomotive tender. conductor – an employee of the railway in charge of a train. conductor’s van – a car at the rear of a freight train that acted as the conductor’s office and crew accommodation, and as a look-out to ensure that nothing untoward was occurring to the train, of which the head-end crew might be unaware. 2 consist – the rolling stock assigned to an engine at any particular time on any particular run. controlling gradient – see gradient. cornfield meet – slang for a head-on collision. (to) couple up – to couple up cars or cuts of cars to each other; or onto a train. crossing (diamond) – a track formation where two tracks cross at grade. Where this is between two different railways, usually protected by an interlocking tower. (See also Tower, interlocking.) crossover – where a pair of switches allows a train to move over from one (parallel) track to another. culvert – a constructed opening under a railway track, usually to allow water to flow from one side to the other, either for drainage or for unimpeded flow of a smaller water course. Larger culverts may also be to allow passage between two fields separated by the railway. It may be constructed of wood, brick, stone, or latterly of concrete. cut of cars – a number of cars coupled together (in the UK, a rake) cut off (to) – to separate any car or cut of cars from each other or from the train (note – not to uncouple). cutting – the excavation of high ground to provide a level grade for the track. diamond (crossing) – see crossing (diamond). dispatcher – an employee of the railway responsible for coordinating and controlling train movements and issuing train orders on designated Subdivisions. district – a Grand Trunk Railway term for a subdivision. See also Subdivision. diversion – a temporary or permanent track re-alignment. A temporary track by-pass or siding is usually laid during nearby construction or after an accident, in order to maintain railway service (also known informally as a “shoo-fly”). division – a major operating segment of a railway’s network. Its size was often defined by geography and/or the railway’s preferred organization. Sometimes determined by the distance a steam locomotive was able to travel before requiring service and/or a change of crew. The central location of a division was referred to as a division point. A division point would provide offices for the various necessary supervisory positions to administer the division. double-header – a train pulled by two engines. (to) double a hill – take a train over a hill in two parts. doubling track – a siding or spur at the top of a gradient where cars could be set off temporarily. (a) drop – switching a car onto another track where the car is uncoupled while the engine and car are in motion. Also referred to as “switching on the fly” or as "a running switch." This is a very dangerous practice, and many men have been hurt performing the task. A running switch is now banned on most railways. elevator – grain storage tower with ability to load grain direct into railway cars. embankment – a raised mound of earth shaped to support a railway track, usually in preference to building a trestle or bridge; or sometimes created when a trestle or bridge is filled in. 3 engine – a unit propelled by any form of energy, or a combination of such units operated from a single control, used in train or yard service. engine house – a rectangular building for stabling locomotives; consisting of one or more tracks, connected by switches outside the engine house. Most smaller engine houses can only be entered from one end. See also roundhouse. engines, class of – a series of locomotives manufactured to the same specifications, not necessarily by the same builder. Sub-classes of a series of locomotives were created when changes or modifications were made to the original design, either when being built new or when being modified during a rebuild. engineman – a railway employee in charge of and responsible for the operation of an engine. (In the 19th century, also “engine driver”.) Commonly referred to as an “engineer”, or less elegantly as a “hogger”, (derived from an early slang name for an engine as a “hog”). engineer – a person employed or retained by the railway who is trained in engineering applications (e.g. civil, mechanical, signal engineering). See also engineman. express – merchandise moved on passenger trains. flag stop – a station building, small shelter or platform, where intending passengers may board a train upon waving a flag on its approach, or where they may request the conductor to drop them off. flanger – used in territories where there is a lot of snow. In appearance like a caboose, but equipped with retractable blades that are lowered to clean out the snow between the rails. The blades have to be lifted on approaching a road crossing or a switch. freight – all manner of merchandise carried by the railway in freight cars of various kinds, including box, stock, gondola, flat and tank cars. (Early pioneer railway freight rolling stock usually consisted of box and flat cars.) freight shed – an attachment to a station or a separate building where freight is stored. Accessed by a team track, siding or spur. gauge – the distance between the inside edges of two rails forming a track. “Standard gauge” is a worldwide gauge of 4' 8 (and 1/2)". In 1851, the Province of Canada required the “Provincial” (or “broad”) gauge of 5' 6" for any railway eligible for and desirous of applying for government financial assistance under the 1849 Railway Guarantee Act. This requirement fell into disuse by the early 1870s, whereupon conversions to the “standard gauge” took place during that decade. “Narrow gauge” refers to any gauge of less than 4' 8 1/2".(It should however be noted that the Great Western Railway, in their Provincial gauge days, referred to the standard gauge as the “narrow gauge”.) grade or gradient – slope, rate of ascent or descent. “At grade” – at the same level, i.e., a road crossing “at grade” would constitute a grade or level crossing. A “ruling (or “controlling) gradient” is the severest gradient on any given route. grade crossing – where a road crosses a track. Grade separation – another term for a trestle or bridge crossing another railway line or highway. From the perspective of the owning railway, a railway bridge over another railway may be appropriately referred to as an “overpass”, whereas the other railway would view it as an “underpass”. In the case of a highway, one over the railway would be viewed as an “overpass”, and one under the railway as an “underpass”. 4 hand brake – used during switching operations to slow or stop cars. Also, used to hold cars that are spotted on a yard track, or a string of cars set off in a siding. hoop – a device in outline like a carpet beater, but with a hollow oval or sometimes triangle, used by the agent or telegrapher “to hoop up” a new order to a train en route.

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